I painted my son's toenails when he was little - he asked, so I said ok.  Trust me he is just fine - at 9 all he can talk about is how pretty girls are.

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Shannon said ...
I painted my son's toenails when he was little - he asked, so I said ok.  Trust me he is just fine - at 9 all he can talk about is how pretty girls are.

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I'm a firm believer that if you make a big deal of it (as a parent) then it will a big deal to your child. If your kid falls off the play structure and YOU freak out - trust me, that kid's gonna start crying. If you say "You're ok!" and help them get up and try again, then your child will. I think the same goes here.... if you make it no big deal to let your son try on toe nail polish, then it will be no big deal. It's when we start turning it into a homophobic situation where things go wrong.

That's my humble opinion anyway. :)

Oh my goodness. My sons used to beg to have their toenails painted! Why not? Big sisters are doing it, it's a fun bonding activity with mom, and everyone likes to feel pretty/handsome/attractive (it's all the same when you're a kid!). Granted, when they got a little older, we tried encouraging them to use clear polish, but we never told them that using pink was "wrong" or just for girls.

How ridiculous!  My little guy loves to have his nails painted - just like mummy.  They have no clue - they just think it looks pretty and they are just like their mums.  Oh and he likes to play with my makeup too!!  

This doctors kids are going to be the ones with problems, not the ones who are just being kids....

Ladies, I couldn't agree with you more!  I have painted toes always, and fingers on and off, and our son noticed about a month ago that my fingernails were a vivid shade of purple.  He said they were "Buzz Lightyear Purple"!! He begged me for over a week to paint them.  We didn't want to send him to pre-school with purple fingernails, as the majority boy class would surely pounce on it, but once Friday rolled around, I pulled out my nail polish bag and let him pick out whatever he wanted.  Of course, he pulled out the purple and insisted that it go on his fingers.  Once I finished, he promptly put on his Buzz costume, complete with lazer hand cuff, light-up wings, and purple hood, and ran around for hours "lasering" anything that stood still.  On Sunday evening, I removed his purple polish and he's not been "scarred" at all.  This fuss is crazy!  If those supposed "doctors" would step into the high school  where I work they'd be horrified.  In our rural school, boys dress like girls all the time for spirit week.  Why, just last month the entire football team loooked like cheerleaders!

There is a reason that this ad got so much attention. Why are so many people concerned and object to cross gender identification imprinting? We are supposed to lead our children and set examples for them and offer them gender choices in such a way that they can choose for themselves. That works for older children, but when you begin dressing our young boys as girls and the other way around, you are sending an imprint message to the subconscious of someone entrusted to your care. If you really want to teach your child what the world thinks about this sort of activity, paint your boy child's toenails hot pink when he is in high school and send him to gym class. Then if that doesn't work, do the same thing for him and let him join the Marine Corps. We learn by association, approval and acceptance and it is not wonder we often get off track.

My comment is not an opinion because of my educational conditioning, my comment is not a fact because I am not learned in this area, my comment is intended to be a suggestive thought only.  Dr M